National Wildlife Refuges

ANCHORAGE – A broad coalition of local and national conservation groups delivered comments from more than 50,000 Alaskan residents and people around the country this week to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, opposing a proposed land swap that would clear the way for an expensive, destructive road to be built through sensitive wetlands and a protected Wilderness area in the heart of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

WASHINGTON (Feb. 7, 2012) – The U.S. District Court of D.C. struck down Bush administration regulations yesterday that would have allowed National Fire Plan projects to move forward without consulting the government’s own wildlife experts. Defenders initially challenged the regulations in 2006, arguing that the regulations violated long-standing Endangered Species Act procedures that help protect the environment and imperiled wildlife.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar sets a course for conservation in new vision for the National Wildlife Refuge System

WASHINGTON (10/20/2011) -

Jamie Rappaport Clark, Defenders of Wildlife’s president and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, welcomed the Obama administration’s effort to frame a new conservation vision for the more than 150 million acres that make up America's National Wildlife Refuge System.